Pitt County, NC Ordinances (2026)

Pitt County requires every building intended for human habitation to have plumbing installed under the North Carolina State Plumbing Code, connected to an approved sanitary sewer or…

Pitt County enforces the North Carolina State Electrical Code, including the National Electrical Code, and requires an Inspections Department permit before any electrical wiring…

Pitt County requires a permit from the Inspections Department before construction, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, mobile-home setup, sign installation, or a change of building use…

Pitt County requires at least six staged inspections during construction, footing, pre-underslab, foundation, frame and rough-in, insulation, and final, and bars work from proceeding…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance sets specific siting standards for day care centers and residential day care facilities under Table 5-1 and Section 8.25(Z). A Special Use Permit from…

Pitt County's Noise Ordinance sets a 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. quiet window for residential areas: Section 3(B)(5) bars repairing, rebuilding or testing any motor vehicle overnight in a way…

Pitt County bans sounding a vehicle horn or signal device except as a danger signal, and prohibits any horn or signal device that produces an unreasonably loud or harsh sound or that…

Pitt County bans playing a radio, phonograph, amplified sound device, television or musical instrument at a volume that disturbs the quiet, comfort or repose of anyone in a nearby…

Pitt County treats a barking dog or noisy bird as a Section 3(B)(6) violation once it makes 'frequent and long continued noise' that disturbs a neighbor's comfort and repose. The…

Pitt County's Noise Ordinance caps sound at the receiving property line using Table I, a grid of maximum decibel levels by property type and time of day. Section 5(A) makes exceeding…

Pitt County's Building Codes Enforcement Ordinance does not regulate residential propane storage: Section 9 expressly exempts equipment for storing, handling, transporting and using…

Pitt County bans fireworks outright on every outdoor site the Cultural Arts & Recreation Department manages, Alice F. Keene District Park, the Office Park Recreation Complex, and Lake…

Pitt County requires a permit before anyone kindles a grass, field, woods, or wind row fire, per Section 17 of the county's Fire Prevention Ordinance. Once a permit issues, a competent…

Pitt County lets homeowners burn leaves, branches, and yard trimmings from their own property without a county permit, but Section 17 of the Fire Prevention Ordinance attaches five…

Pitt County regulates post-development stormwater runoff countywide under the Stormwater Management Ordinance for Nutrient Control, adopted June 3, 2024 and effective July 1, 2024. A…

Pitt County requires an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan before any land-disturbing activity uncovering more than one acre, or less than an acre if part of a larger…

Pitt County treats a dock, pier, boat ramp, or landing on the Tar River or another waterway as "Development Activity" under Section 5 of its Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance, meaning…

Any development inside a Pitt County Special Flood Hazard Area needs a Floodplain Development Permit before work starts, under Section 8 of the county's Flood Damage Prevention…

In Pitt County's Special Flood Hazard Areas, the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance requires new construction and substantial improvements to be elevated to the Regulatory Flood…

At an oversized commercial vehicle parking facility in a Pitt County residential district, Zoning Ordinance Section 8(VVVV)(6) bars parked vehicles from idling or making any other…

Pitt County's Outdoor Advertising Sign Ordinance flatly prohibits outdoor advertising signs, commonly called billboards, on freeways in the unincorporated county, while permitting them…

Temporary political signs are excluded from the definition of 'outdoor advertising sign' in Pitt County Planning & Development Services Ordinance No. 7, so they are not subject to the…

Pitt County exempts a temporary sign, the category covering yard sales, farm auctions and similar events, from permit and fee requirements under Sign Ordinance Section 9(C), but only…

Pitt County's Sign Ordinance carves electronically controlled message signs, the county's term for digital displays, out of its flashing-sign ban, but only if the message holds still…

Pitt County requires any subdivision that uses private streets to be governed by an incorporated homeowners association. The Subdivision Ordinance ties final plat approval to the…

Outdoor advertising signs illuminated in unincorporated Pitt County must direct and shield their lighting so the light source itself is never visible to motorists or neighbors, and…

Pitt County's zoning ordinance requires every detached outdoor light fixture on a use subject to development standards to be a full cutoff fixture, one whose housing blocks any glare…

Pitt County's Inspections Department conducts periodic inspections of existing buildings under N.C.G.S. § 153A-364, and can inspect a rental without a specific complaint if the…

Pitt County's Inspections Department must investigate a rental property once a tenant files a complaint of substandard conditions or requests an inspection. Under the county's Building…

Pitt County repealed its standalone 1987 Massage Business License Ordinance in 2017; a massage business is now regulated only if it meets the county's narrow 'Massage Parlor'…

Pitt County requires a $500 sexually oriented business license before any adult arcade, bookstore, cabaret, motel, theater, escort agency or similar establishment may open, and bars…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance lets a home occupation run from a residence only if it stays under 25 percent of the dwelling's floor area and generates no more traffic, noise…

Pitt County's Parks & Facilities Ordinance makes it unlawful to use or trespass on Cultural Arts & Recreation property once it is closed to the public. Opening and closing times are…

In Pitt County's regulated floodways and non-encroachment areas, a retaining wall that involves placing fill must meet Section 23's no-rise standard: an engineer must certify it will…

Pitt County does not set a blanket fence height cap outside sight triangles, but at any road intersection it bars a fence, wall, shrub or tree from blocking the sight distance area…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance requires a zoning permit for development generally, but Section 3(C)(2) specifically exempts fences, grouped with other landscaping features, from that…

Pitt County does not regulate dogs by breed; instead it declares a dog "dangerous" or "vicious" based on documented behavior and then locks it into strict confinement, registration…

Pitt County bans owning big cats, venomous reptiles and amphibians, large nonvenomous reptiles and wolves as pets unless the owner registered within one year of the ordinance's March…

Pitt County doesn't run a county-wide chipping mandate for pet dogs at home. It does require the Animal Shelter to microchip every dog it impounds before the owner can reclaim it, and…

Pitt County treats stray, at-large, unwanted and nuisance cats the way it treats stray dogs: Animal Services can place live traps on public or private property, on request, to remove…

Pitt County places no cap on how many dogs or cats a person may own for personal, non-breeding purposes. The county's large-commercial-breeder standards say directly that the numeric…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance lets veterinary clinics locate only in the RA Rural Agricultural and RR Rural Residential districts, and only with development standards attached…

Pitt County makes every dog owner responsible for the animal's care and control and bans letting a dog run at large anywhere in the unincorporated county. Dogs entering a county park…

Pitt County runs no wildlife-rehabilitation permit program of its own. Instead, its dangerous exotic animal ban carves out "wildlife rehabilitators with proper permits," so a state- or…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance exempts bona fide farm operations, including keeping poultry and livestock, from zoning regulation entirely under state law NCGS 160D-903. The county's…

Pitt County's Inspections Department can condemn any building that is especially dangerous to life, health, or property because of fire risk, failing walls, overloaded floors…

Pitt County zoning treats a home daycare as a "Day Care Facility, Residential" use, allowed only in the RA, RR, R40, SR and MFR districts. Outdoor play areas need a security fence at…

Pitt County allows home occupations by right, with a zoning permit, in most residential and mixed-use districts, but caps the space used for the business at 25 percent of the…

A Pitt County home occupation cannot "generate traffic... beyond what normally occurs in the zoning district" under the Zoning Ordinance's Section 15 definition. The use is capped at…

A Pitt County home-based business can post a professional or occupational name plate up to 32 square feet, no taller than 30 inches if ground-mounted, set back at least 2 feet from…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance sets no general lot-coverage cap for the standard zoning districts in Table 6-1, but inside the water supply watershed protection overlay districts…

Pitt County sets no flat maximum height for buildings in any conventional zoning district. Instead, once a building rises above 50 feet, its required setback grows one foot for every…

Table 6-1 of the Pitt County Zoning Ordinance sets uniform yard setbacks across all 11 conventional zoning districts: principal buildings must sit back 40 feet from a US or NC highway…

Pitt County's zoning ordinance permits one accessory dwelling unit per single-family lot in the RA, RR, R40, SR and MFR districts. A detached unit under 600 square feet needs only a…

Pitt County lets sheds under 12 feet in any dimension go up without a zoning permit, but anything bigger needs one from the Zoning Administrator. Setbacks and height limits still…

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance requires a tiny house to meet the North Carolina Residential Code, or be built off-site and certified under the NC Modular Construction Program. A tiny…

Pitt County's zoning ordinance requires commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-family dumpsters to be screened from view whenever they sit near a residence, a residentially…

Pitt County treats illegal dumping, including dumping prohibited materials or excess quantities at solid waste receptacles or the transfer station, dumping in unapproved areas, or…

Pitt County channels bulky waste, large items like appliances, furniture, junk vehicles, trees, and stumps, into designated rural recycling sites rather than curbside pickup. Section…

Pitt County's Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance defines yard waste as leaves, limbs, grass trimmings and untreated wood, and requires anyone using the county's waste handling facility…

Pitt County's Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance requires garbage to sit in a durable, rust-resistant, watertight container with a close-fitting, fly-tight lid sized for a full week's…

Pitt County's Solid Waste Recycling, Collection and Disposal Ordinance requires every owner, occupant, tenant, or lessee whose property stores garbage to remove it, or have it removed…

Pitt County's Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance requires anyone using the county's waste handling facility, transfer station or recycling centers to separate nine categories of…

A commercial drone operator flying under FAA Part 107, or under an FAA Certificate of Authorization, is exempt from Pitt County's local UAS takeoff-and-landing restrictions entirely…

Flying a recreational drone in Pitt County means keeping it off private land without the owner's consent, away from weapons, and outside set buffers: 500 feet from active emergency…

Flying a drone or any other unmanned aircraft system in a Pitt County park is unlawful unless the operator holds a proper permit and has the County Manager's personal consent. Section…

Pitt County protects working farms through its Voluntary Agricultural District Ordinance (Ordinance No. 15), letting farmers, horticulturalists and foresters enroll qualifying land in…

Amplified music from a bar or nightclub that annoys or disturbs residents nearby is a specific violation under Pitt County's Noise Ordinance, not just a general nuisance. The Sheriff's…

A generator loud enough to push sound past the limits in Table 1 of Pitt County's Noise Ordinance, measured at the receiving property line, violates county law. The Pitt County…

Pitt County has no separate landlord-tenant habitability code: it enforces livability through Section 30 of the Building Codes Enforcement Ordinance, which lets the Inspector declare…

Pitt County does not have a stand-alone swimming-pool permit ordinance; a pool only needs its own Floodplain Development Permit when it sits inside a mapped Special Flood Hazard Area…

Pitt County's zoning ordinance requires an outdoor swimming pool at a country club or swim and tennis club to be fenced under the Pitt County Health Department's public swimming pool…

Pitt County zones bed and breakfast inns as the county's closest analog to a short-term rental, and its ordinance requires the operator to live on site. The use 'must be owned and…

Pitt County has no separate short-term rental ordinance. Paid overnight lodging in a private home is regulated as a "Bed and Breakfast Inn" (SIC 7011) under Zoning Ordinance Section…

New homes and substantial remodels in a Pitt County flood zone must sit at or above the Regulatory Flood Protection Elevation, the base flood elevation plus two feet of freeboard…

Pitt County prohibits possessing, consuming, or displaying alcoholic beverages on any property the Cultural Arts & Recreation Department manages, including Alice F. Keene District…

Skateboarding, roller skating, roller blading and riding coasters or scooters on any Pitt County-owned property is unlawful without the Board of Commissioners' written consent. The…

Inside Pitt County's Southwest Bypass Highway Corridor Overlay District, the mandatory buffer yard must stay in a natural, undisturbed state. The zoning ordinance allows only ingress…

Pitt County's zoning ordinance sets no specific loading-zone hours; instead it fixes minimum off-street loading space counts by building size and use, plus strict site-design rules…

Pitt County prohibits leaving a vehicle unattended for more than 12 hours or overnight on any outdoor property the Cultural Arts & Recreation Department manages, including Alice F…

Pitt County's Junk Motor Vehicle Ordinance lets the county remove an inoperable, dismantled or damaged vehicle that is five years old or older and worth less than $100 from public or…

Pitt County treats a facility for parking oversized commercial vehicles as its own zoning use under Section 8(VVVV): it needs Conditional Zoning District approval in the RA district…

Pitt County requires ground-mounted solar energy facilities to win Conditional Zoning District approval in the RA, RR and GC districts under Zoning Ordinance Section 8(EEEE), while…

Pitt County only allows a large-scale data processing facility in the RA, GC, HC, LI and GI districts, and every one of them requires Conditional Zoning District approval under Zoning…

Pitt County zoning treats cryptocurrency mining as a "Data Processing Facility (Large Scale)" under Zoning Ordinance Section 8(UUUU). The use requires Conditional Zoning District…

A large-scale data processing facility in Pitt County must keep its noise within the county's separate Noise Ordinance and cannot disrupt adjacent land uses, under Zoning Ordinance…

Groups that want to reserve space at Alice F. Keene District Park, the Office Park Recreation Complex, or Lake Glenwood Park for an event must apply at least 30 days in advance under…

Pitt County allows a Special Temporary Event, covering festivals, fairs and similar gatherings, in any zoning district under Zoning Ordinance Section 8(GGGG), but the Zoning…

Pitt County's Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance defines sharps as a form of infectious waste and bars unsterilized, unpackaged infectious waste, including sharps, from the county's…

Pitt County's Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance bars property owners from letting waste accumulate outside the disposal methods the ordinance allows, and it requires refuse to be…